Annual Women’s Suffrage Convention, 1890

At the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, the first large gathering dedicated to women’s rights in the U.S., attendees drafted and signed a document called the Declaration of Sentiments. The Declaration called for civil, social, political, and religious rights for women—rights that had long been denied to women by states and the federal government. Many of the signers of the Declaration, including Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, would go on to become the leaders of a generation of suffrage activists.

In the decades that followed the Seneca Falls Convention, formal groups were established to lead American women in their bid for voting and other rights.

Newspaper coverage of the women’s suffrage campaign was important to the movement’s strategy to raise awareness and keep the issue in the public’s attention. This article, which highlighted notable leaders and the union of two suffrage associations, came from a weekly paper published out of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

Source Analysis

• What perspective or point of view is offered from this article about women’s suffrage?
• Who do you think was the audience for this article? What makes you think that?
• How does the author of this article describe the convention and the women leading the convention? What words, phrases, or other language choices stand out and why?
• The article concludes with a comment from the author about both old and new leaders in the suffrage movement. Why is that significant to the campaign to secure voting rights for women?

Talk by Mary Church Terrell, 1908

While suffrage organizations and leaders talked about goals of greater equality, they did not always include all women. White leaders often excluded people of color from full participation. However, Black women still organized and advocated for suffrage and equality throughout the movement. Some Black leaders worked closely with white leaders and used the opportunity to advocate for racial equality. Frederick Douglass also helped the movement, bringing his celebrity as a public speaker to the cause for women’s suffrage.

This excerpt comes from a full speech delivered by Mary Church Terrell on an anniversary of the first Seneca Falls Convention. She spoke about the significance of Douglass to the women’s suffrage movement. Terrell was a Black activist who fought for women’s suffrage and broader civil rights for African Americans.

Source Analysis

• Look at the year that Mary Church Terrell delivered this speech. What can the date tell you about the length of the women’s suffrage movement? What might be some risks and rewards of advocating for an issue or cause for a long period of time?
• How does Terrell describe Frederick Douglass’s contributions to the women’s suffrage movement? What words and phrases stand out and why?
• What can we learn from this speech about the possible tensions or conflict within the women’s suffrage movement? Why is that important to consider?
• How does this speech excerpt contribute to an understanding of different strategies that women and their allies used to win the right to vote? What new questions does this source raise about the campaign for women’s suffrage?

Women picketing at The White House, 1917

The fight for suffrage rights escalated when the United States entered World War I in April 1917, and many women moved into the workforce. One new strategy adopted by the suffrage movement was regular picketing of the White House. Protesters carried banners naming President Wilson as an opponent of suffrage. The resulting arrests and press coverage of the arrests brought more attention to the suffrage movement.

This photograph, taken November of 1917, shows picketers bringing attention to President Wilson’s appeals to the principles of democracy as reason for fighting in World War I. The suffragists picketing used these appeals to bring attention to their cause as well.

Source Analysis

• What in this photograph most stands out? Why?
• Read the text on the banner that the women are holding. What does it say? What terms or phrases are compelling and why? Are any words unfamiliar?
• How does this sign use global events to make a case for women’s suffrage?
• What First Amendment freedoms do you see being exercised in this photograph? How does this photograph show a strategy for winning a constitutional right to vote?
• If a similar protest happened today, would anything look similar? What would be different?

Alice Paul on hunger strike, 1917

Alongside organizing formal suffrage groups and rallying at conventions and meetings, supporters of women’s suffrage used a number of other strategies. Activists exercised their First Amendment rights to peaceably assemble and petition the government. Alice Paul, founder of the National Women’s Party, organized pickets outside of the White House and, along with other picketers, was arrested for obstructing traffic. While in jail, Paul led a hunger strike—a tactic that she had learned from suffragists in England.

The media’s coverage of the hunger strike brought increased attention to and sympathy for the cause of women’s suffrage. These two articles give attention to the conditions that Alice Paul endured—one from the beginning of her hunger strike and another several weeks into her strike.

Source Analysis

• What can these two articles also tell you about events happening at the time? How can that help with understanding the strategies that women used in the suffrage movement?
• Based on these two articles, do you think that the hunger strike was a successful strategy? Why or why not?
• If something like this were to happen today, how would media coverage be different? In what ways might that help or hurt a campaign’s strategy to gain attention and support?

Announcement of women’s suffrage amendment, 1920

The 19th Amendment to the Constitution, granting women the right to vote, was approved by Congress on June 4, 1919. State legislatures then considered ratifying the amendment, and a total number of three-fourths of the state legislatures that ratified it was reached on August 19, 1920. After the Amendment was ratified, women used the organizing skills they had practiced during in the suffrage movement to continue to fight for equality.

Opposition to women’s suffrage continued even after the passage of the Amendment. State and national groups such as the New York State Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage and Association Opposed to Woman’s Suffrage actively resisted suffrage rights for women. These groups were often opposed to any role for women outside the home, fearing the downfall of the family as well as a decrease in women’s work in communities and their ability to influence societal reforms.

This article from the New York Tribune captures some of the sentiments, both for and against women’s suffrage, that were expressed at the announcement of the Amendment’s passing.

Source Analysis

• Note the date of this newspaper article. Reflect on the time between the first convention for women’s suffrage (1848) and the passage of the 19th Amendment that guaranteed a women’s right to vote. What can that tell you about the strategies women used to win a right to vote?
• How many articles from this front page are related to the women’s suffrage campaign? What can that tell us about the level of attention that the issue received at the time?
• What do you notice about the range of coverage related to women winning the national right to vote? How are opponents to women’s suffrage covered?
• In what ways does this front page preview the significance of women as a voting demographic (group)?

Forming Conclusions: Women’s Suffrage

Think about the sources you examined in this section.

• What patterns did you notice about the strategies that women used to win a constitutional right to vote?
• How did the sources you study support or challenge what you already understood about women’s suffrage and why?
• Based on the sources you reviewed, what conclusions can you make what strategies women used to win a constitutional right to vote? What new questions do you have?